Hacker jailed for 45 months

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A man who pleaded guilty to hacking into an Arkansas data
company's computer system and stealing personal identification
files was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly four years in federal
prison.

Daniel J. Baas, 26, of suburban Milford, entered his plea in
December 2003, after being indicted that August.

Baas was a systems administrator for Market Intelligence Group,
which had an agreement to analyse data for Acxiom Corporation of
Little Rock, Arkansas, when he exceeded his authorised access and
downloaded encrypted password files, prosecutors said.

In a plea agreement, Baas admitted that he stole the data
between January 2001 and January 2003 and stored it on computer
disks at his home, prosecutors said. On Wednesday, US District
Judge Susan Dlott sentenced Baas to 45 months in prison.

Baas bragged to other hackers that he had the files, but didn't
share them with anyone, prosecutors said.

Acxiom said Baas' intrusion and theft of about 300 computer
passwords and files cost the company $US5.8 million, prosecutors
said.

That includes employees' time and travel expenses, payments for
security audits and encryption software, and the amount that Baas
would have been charged had he obtained the information
legitimately as an Acxiom customer, the company said.